Kameleon007/iStockBy JACK DATE, ABC News

(NEW YORK) -- There were 59 mass shootings in May, the highest monthly total ever tallied since the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a nonprofit research group, began tracking the data in 2013.

GVA defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.

Forty people were killed in mass shootings in May and 249 were shot, a period during which much of the country was practicing social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On May 17 in Saint Matthews, South Carolina, three family members, including a 12-year-old, were killed and another was wounded in a domestic violence incident, police said.

According to police, 13 people were shot during one incident following a memorial service for another murder victim in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on May 16.

On May 13, five people were shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, including a woman who was seven months pregnant, according to local news reports.

May’s total for mass shootings is double any previous month’s total this year.

GVA has tracked 158 mass shooting incidents year-to-date with 641 people shot and 146 people killed.

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